Category: Pac-12

The USC football team shares the same campus that was the home of entertainment titans like George Lucas and John Wayne. So it's only fitting that in 2016, the Trojans delivered a season that seems to come straight from the writers’ room. Seriously: this team executed your prototypical hero’s journey, and we all got to…

LOS ANGELES - Vince Young's 2006 Rose Bowl-winning, fourth-and-5 dash to the north end zone came not long before midnight Eastern on Jan. 4 -- well past bedtime for a grade-schooler with class the next day, as was the case for current Penn State cornerback Grant Haley. "Vince Young running into the end zone right…

When I asked Mike Leach on Monday if Tuesday's Holiday Bowl would be quarterback Luke Falk's last game as a Cougar, the Washington State head coach was immediate and definitive. "Won't be his last game [at Washington State]," he said. But following the Cougars' 17-12 loss to Minnesota, Luke Falk himself was less certain when…

Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you. Hawaii's other way of wishing America a Merry Christmas is through college football, a tradition going strong since 1937. I have a special affinity for Hawaii at the holidays. My one visit to the Islands was my honeymoon, one week before Christmas. There was…

Craig Sager's passing on Thursday prompted a flood of memorials and homages, most from people who knew the sideline reporter better than I -- and by better, I mean knew him at all. Nevertheless, when a person's beamed into your home weekly for several years, it's easy to feel as though you know their personality.…

Oregon tabbed Willie Taggart to replace ousted head coach Mark Helfrich, a move that in and of itself spoke to the high standard Ducks brass held for the football program's new leader. He may or may not be able to match 37 wins in four seasons, a Pac-12 Conference championship and a College Football Playoff…

Tonight's the night some -- not all; it's never all -- of college football's best don formal wear, grin politely at corny jokes, and wait a few hours for the presentation of the Heisman Trophy. The recipient is often a foregone conclusion, as appears to be the case this time around. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson…

Before his firing Thursday, Kevin Wilson seemingly built up some cachet at Indiana. The Wilson-led Hoosiers just sealed their second postseason appearance in as many years, the first time the long-downtrodden program had reached such an achievement in more than a quarter-century. But like Jim Leavitt at USF and Mark Mangino at Kansas before him,…

It's fitting that, just three days after No. 11 USC ended an 8-0 winning streak with a 45-27 victory over Notre Dame, quarterback Sam Darnold and defensive back Adoree Jackson received Pac-12 honors for their heroics this season. There is literally nothing you could have said in September that would lead me to believe that…

Living well is the best revenge, or so the saying goes. If that’s true, first-year USC head coach Clay Helton, his entire coaching staff and this 2016 Trojan football team are proving it, all right. Allow me to be the first to admit I was dead wrong in underestimating Helton this season -- and I…

Week 11 provided yet another eventful weekend in college football -- including several big upsets that are sure to cause a major shakeup in the College Football Playoff rankings. Three top-4 teams -- No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 Washington -- were all defeated for the first time all season. That will make…

Precedent dictates certain criteria for Heisman contention: A candidate must typically be either the quarterback or running back of a national championship-contending team, with very few exceptions in the award's history. So, when a Florida State fan site lamented Dalvin Cook's drop in the Heisman race following the running back's best game of the season,…

ESPN airs the first College Football Playoff rankings tonight at 7 p.m. ET, and the affair is sure to be controversy-free, right? I mean, the Associated Press Top 25 and Coaches Poll both have the same unbeaten teams ranked in the Top 4, so there's no way the Playoff committee could possibly deviate, right? Well...…

Week 9 provided yet another eventful weekend in college football -- most notably the matinee matchup in the ACC. No. 3 Clemson defeated No. 12 Florida State in a game that went down to the wire. The weekend also provided yet another convincing performance from Michigan, a huge upset in the SEC East and another victory…

Rich Rodriguez has probably seen enough injuries in the last season-and-a-half to last him the remainder of his time in college football. However, as his injury-plagued Arizona Wildcats prepare to face a Stanford Cardinal bunch that has been as banged up this season, Rodriguez said the last two seasons are an anomaly in the larger…